Making ourway home
HOUSING has reached a point where, up in Yorkshire, the boss of Persimmon Homes was paid a £75 million bonus. Down in Essex, homeless families are warehoused in tiny flats in a permitted development with a “known reputation” (according to Harlow Police).
But things could be worse and, under the planning reforms being made by Robert Jenrick’s Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) they probably will be.
If ever there was an issue to take up with your MP, this is it.
So here’s five groups of factors you might want to considerwhen asking them to make a difference.
Better home delivery
Primary legislation can improve delivery in three steps:
Revive the public sector building programme to deliver the houses that we actually need to give our children a home of their own and our senior citizens a place to downsize to that’s near to family and friends: delivering over 150,000 per year
Require developers and property promoters to build all of the properties that they’ve got planning permissions for already. The LGA reports the number as 1 million homes: delivering 100,000 per year for 10 years.
Return long term empty homes to the active propertymarket. MHCLG numbers fromApril
2020, indicate a moving average of 690,000: delivering over 60,000 per year for 10 years.
Housing made viable
Take land out as a factor in house pricing via a process of modern compulsory purchase as the sole source of greenfield development land, ensuring there’s sufficient land available for public sector, small builders, self-builders and large developers, based on their ability to deliver.
The country also needs to put infrastructure first (rather than last or not at all).
Public sector providers need the ability to fund public housing via the sales of a proportion of the properties they build, giving commercial developers better viability by removing their affordable housing obligations.
This also needs primary legislation to ensure that developer contributions are ring fenced by law.
Rewards for system reform
We’ll knowwhen the system has been simplified when residents and small builders can get their planning applications right first time, every time.
But those system reforms need to be made via legislation to stop the ministerial tinkering that the trail of 300+ statutory instruments since 2010 reveals.
Developers can be rewarded via a simple league table to ensure that those who do deliver their housing numbers on time and snag free are amply rewarded with the choicest opportunities, while those who fail to perform are penalised.
Building communities to a plan
However, if we want to build effective and pleasant local communities, then everyone should have a say in what goes on in their area – street, neighbourhood, locality or region – as appropriate to the size of the development and based on better access to higher quality information than is available today.
And when housing numbers above organic growth are proposed, local communities need to benefit in a way that they understand, want and value, especially in essential infrastructure for utilities, roads, health and leisure (in that order).
This avoids the total infrastructure overload of the ‘it’s only one more house’ routine.
Knowing what ‘right’ looks like …
Only central government can lead simplification by setting clear and unambiguous quality standards, space standards and performance metrics for all to follow, giving clear separation of powers of inspection, approval and indemnity (warranty) to form open system of checks and balances to keep it all above board.
The planning system should support any individual’s level of understanding and participation in planning decisions, adaptable by the individual to their choice.
The last word
Please feel free to adopt, adapt or ignore the above when you write yourMP letting them knowwhat you want them to change the planning reforms.
� Bracknell: james.sunderland.mp@parliament.uk � Maidenhead: mayt@parliament.uk
� Reading: matt.rodda.mp@parliament.uk
� Wokingham: john.redwood.mp@parliament.uk
“An expanded version of this commentarywill be appearing online on Sunday).